Space Battleship Yamato

... should have been made by the people who made this "live-action" Space Battleship Yamato (2010) movie-- which is based on the Classic (first major "space opera"-- after Star Trek, before Star Wars) animated TV series of the same name , and much closer in style and content to Star Trek The Original TV Series... since it doesn't devolve into the teen-angst or "slo-mo" action of recent Hollywood blockbusters.

The source material is given many judicious "updates" which largely made sense to me from a story, if not production, stand-point: e.g. the talking robot "Analyzer" is now a "SIM" module which you can load into other devices and the aliens are now truly "alien" with technology and energy signatures which humans have difficulty detecting or understanding.... And the writing is smart enough to make light of the "old-schooled" stuff they keep-- like their costumes ("we're still wearing this?") and one-liners. In fact, there is so little "fan-service" or "sequel baiting" that non-fans probably won't realize that this is an adaptation of a 1970s TV animation series (using the ORIGINAL music)!

P.S. To anyone who thinks that the characters' reactions to the movie's apocalyptic story is unrealistic (taking time to make decisions, say farewells, mourn/salute the dead)-- just look at how real Japanese people deal with their earthquakes and tsunamis.

Owing to the fact that the Japanese "general movie audience" is not that much larger than the Japanese anime/manga audience, there is no faux issue of "re-imagining" the source material for a "new/larger" audience-- and the writers rise to the monumental task of "condensing" many epic, if episodic, story-arcs (which should have taken a trilogy, if not a series of 7/8 movies) into a single feature film... by focusing on the STORY! In fact, this movie is so tightly structured that the only really unexplained or implausible thing in it is probably all of the actors' great hair... and the secret lies in using sci-fi movie tropes (most of it actually originating from their source material), NOT explaining them-- since no amount of techno-babble will turn a plot device into reality.

Which is where, I believe, this movie will divide audiences into fans and non-fans of the source material (or sci-fi/anime in general)-- a downside of all this emphasis on story is, of course, a relative lack of characterization.... Though thankfully, anime stereotypes have at least one more dimension than their Hollywood counterparts and the casting is mostly SPOT-ON (you who believe skinny anime characters with fluffy hair do not exist in Japan, repent!) And some inevitably heavy narration and exposition which might have been risible were thankfully short, focused and well-delivered-- with a touch of self-awareness (*eye-rolling*) by the characters themselves. And as expected, veteran actors deliver their lines and inhabit their characters without batting an eyelid, while younger cast members are less convincing with their histrionics.

So while this might seem like a pretty generic space adventure to "general audiences"; it is and has always been intended as a treat for the fans. And this movie won me over for the simple fact that, after decades of Star Wars and Star Trek, it could still make me go "WOW..." every time an alien or a space-ship appeared, for all of 3/4 of a second-- because it's not what you have, it's how you use it!

For this is low-budget movie-making by Hollywood standards, so there is absolutely no "pimping" of expensive special effects-- which means that the only time you get to see the aliens/space-ships is when they are actually doing something ESSENTIAL to the plot. And sci-fi fans might also note that they got the relative speeds of capital-ships (bigger = slower) vs fighter-ships, missile-fire, warp-effects (almost instantaneous by comparison) RIGHT-- so there is no such rubbish as waiting for "visual confirmation" (which is meaningless in the vastness of space) or capital-ships "dodging" long-range fire (which would hit almost as soon as they are "detected").

All this means going back to the "bridge battles" of submarine/battleship warfare (this Yamato looks/works more like a submarine with a skeletal crew, than some cruise-boat or flying-city) which rely more on having good scripts/actors than special effects-- and people who don't think this can't be nerve-wrecking should see how they "set-up" the Yamato's SPLIT-SECOND "warp-maneouvers"!

The budgetary limits really start showing up near the end of the movie-- but if the money is lacking, the heart is not: the relatively simple yet distinct special effects design (transforming "2-stage" fighter-ships!) is always a pleasure to behold, even when very tight (or wide) shots are used in order to avoid rendering very expensive details. It may be just a few frames of CGI, but the "impact" will leave you re-playing it in your mind...

The real only disappointment for me, if any, would be how the human and environmental issues (Living with irradiated earth? Leaders making up "white lies"?) ever-present in the best of Japanese anime is left in the background-- as both the challenges and solutions presented in the story are essentially alien-related. I mean, I'm ashamed to admit to one of the more touching moments for me was when "Analyzer" finally took on its robot-form (hey, it had more lines than the "red shirts")....

Well, considering the length of the original series, the movie producers have done well cramming it all into a 2-hour long film.

There are a few flaws in the movie I thought needed a bit more work on.

1. There is little feelings of romance between Kodai Susumu and Mori Yuki. It just felt flat. This, I attributed, to the target audience of the original animated series.

2. The melodrama at the end, on the bridge, was very Japanese..... in the 1970s. It should have been shorter and more modernized. I guess one has to be a die-hard fan not to find that scene particularly long-winded.

3. There wasn't enough battle footage of the Yamato and her enemies. This I was seriously looking forward to, but was left disappointed.

4. I wish Mr Kimura would shed a few tears, that would have made his performance more believable.

That said, there were quite a few good points about the movie, 1. Realistic space-fighter maneuvers. The big turnarounds of spaceships and fighters in American sci-fi is just plain BS. The only other sci-fi that got it right was Babylon 5.

2. Up until the bridge scene right at the very end, I was actually not aware of the time passing.

3. This movie have some of the better Japanese actors in recent years. Overall, their performances are well delivered and their friendships believable.

4. Swearing and vulgarities are non-existent in the entirety of the movie (or none that I am aware of). This is a rarity these days, especially with all the filth coming out of American and European films.

5. The graphics and SFX are quite good. They are quite realistic. I have no problem with much of it except for those SFX sounds the lasers and beams made.... sound very arcade-like and very 70s.

This movie is worth the ticket you paid for.

While it is its own film with material drawn from its rich source content (the film is mostly based on its 1974 series), one cannot help but to see shades of JJ Abram's reboot of the Star Trek film franchise here. Granted there are many parallels between Star Trek and Yamato, for starters the legendary space ships are named after their equally legendary real world counterparts, and are the best of their fleet and make in the reel world (though one comes with seat belts that got seldom used), manned by the best crew that an ideology can supply, which the story takes some pains to introduce at least their core duties on board. It's also the story of the coming of age of a young captain, where in this case Takuya Kimura's Susumu Kodai is the equivalent of James Tiberius Kirk, possessing qualities befitting a captain that he needs to realize and grow into, with that level of hot headedness and past famed exploits to allow him some gravitas and stature amongst peers and crew members.

Then of course this film went for broke in its action sequences, beginning much like Star Trek putting the audience right into the thick of a big set action piece which culminates in a loss that will shape the events of things to come, and seriously, the way the space voyagers attempted to disable an enemy planet's defenses, was uncannily similar to the Star Trek one in its approach. I suppose if Yamato had beaming technology, then this would complete its Trekkie influence, but thankfully it held back on that temptation, making it a little more challenging each time it had to reign in crew outside of its hull.

Fans of the long running series will have to accept the fact that this is not something from our generation, since a translation to film means a huge amount of compression having to take place to tell something worthwhile, creating in a sense its own version of events. It's Year 2199, and Earth is plague by radioactive attacks by the alien race Gamilas, who are adamant in creating an atmosphere suitable for their race for a total takeover. Gone are Earth's greens, and it's up to the crew of Yamato, hastily assembled may I add, to travel to the planet of Iscandar to retrieve what could possibly be Earth's last hope to restore its environment. This sets off a round trip for Yamato's voyage, and along the way the crew will face various hostilities always threatening the ship or to extinguish the hopes of Earth.

The special effects are all detailed and intricately done, so much so that they really look like something to scale and real, making space dogfights in the various Star Wars films seem like a walk in the park. It's incredibly edge of your seat stuff as ships of different sizes battling it out, and if watched in a good theatre with excellent sound system, you can bet your last dollar of feeling every laser, cannon and even the trademark of the Wave Motion Gun round that goes off. Best part is, and I think some films and filmmakers need to learn from this, is that it's never shy of utilizing its best weapon in its arsenal whenever it can, avoiding plenty of the usual cliché pitfalls of saving the best for the last. Really, whatever for, when you have a threat in front of you that you need to neutralize, why not deploy the best you have on board?

Don't expect too much character development here though, because there isn't much time to jam pack so much into what's already close to 2 hours and 20 minutes. As such the first act suffered a little from the lack of a proper introduction on characters and their motivations, preferring to keep you in suspense as it slowly unravelled them, sometimes just through a one liner in passing. You'll soon acquaint yourself with the crew enough to know their core function, and most of them time everyone sticks to their one single function on board the ship. The end result is a rather choppy beginning just as Yamato finds its feet in its maiden voyage, before things smoothen out as the voyage progressed. With a new crew in a new ship also come the avenues for mistakes to be made, and one of the more telling one is how everyone let their guard down en route to base (common pitfall in the military), where one's guard should be up until you actually reach paradise.

The other issue I found wanting in a minor way, though it still worked, was Takuya Kimura's presence. He's such a big star, and is really charismatic on screen that my memory of the Kodai character pales in comparison, but like how Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible was, my memory of Yamato was that this was a group attempt and mission, which Kimura's star power inevitably made him prominent in every step of the way through the story as if it's solely a one man show, often overshadowing that of his co-stars such as Meisa Kuroki (who is a big name herself), Toshiro Yanagiba and Tsutomu Yamazaki, who plays the ship's Captain Okita, responsible for crafting the mission of hope that Yamato finds itself in. Throwing in a romantic subplot for good measure that was expected though hurried, and side characters such as Analyzer the robot was fun, but could have been better executed rather than a short supporting appearance.

Still, Space Battleship Yamato is one nostalgic guilty pleasure. It helps if you have a little bit of a background on characters and motivations, as the story hits the ground running at breakneck speed from the get go, and is a special effects romp that will wow even the most jaded of audiences who have seen one space battle too many.

I have to say that i think one of the best things to take away from this movie also seems to be one of the things which nobody considers.

I'm not familiar with the original series or comic so i can not attest to its being good or bad in that sense. What i am familiar with is the historical significance of the battleship Yamato and the symbolism and slight role it played in WWII for the Japanese People. Japan had one of the most powerful navies (and arguably the most powerful)in the world at the beginning of hostilities in the Pacific theatre of WWII. By the 6th of April 1945 when the Yamato left port for the last time, the Japanese navy had been ravaged, they had lost most of their carriers and cruisers with only about 10% of its original naval forces remaining. The Yamato and a few escorts were to attempt to attack the now Allied occupied Okinawa in a near-futile attempt to deal a blow to the US fleet. She was destroyed en-route to the battle by relentless air attack by the US and never got to use her 9 46cm batteries, the largest in existence at the time. This story is about hope, honour, and the tenacity of the Japanese people as a whole. Of course it was corny, they raised the hulk of the ship out of the ground! And besides bearing a resemblance in spirit its clearly not the actual ship, its about 5 times as large. The acting was perfectly appropriate for the type of story this was and despite a few drawn out scenes i was still very entertained. Sure, some of the CGI at the end was, to quote another review, "dodgy", but for the most part actually pretty good. But, thats not what this movie is about.

Its about the symbolism of a desperate mission which only a Japanese navy would have taken, its about remembering history, and its about transferring it to a modern setting of hope prevailing in a time of despair. Enjoy the CGI, enjoy the space battles, don't worry about the inconsistencies with weapons and apparent inept "Gamillas" forces towards the end (maybe new recruits?),and instead enjoy the heroes and unmistakable, "fight to the last man" mentality and Japanese spirit which comes through in every scene.

12 Million Dollars to produce Yamato? Money well spent, I'd say!

Even though it takes place in limited spaces what is there, looks good. Imagine making Yamato with a Transformers budget. That would give time to bring to life the lengthy battles from the original series. Especially the scene, fighting the subspacemarine would be interesting to see in a sequel.

What I liked about the movie is that it has characters. Somewhat cheesy and over-dramatizing characters at times, but that's Anime for you. There are some actual hero's voyages here involving more than cutting a distance between point a and b. There is the personal story of every character that makes this movie connect on more than an action level, in its best moments.

In its worst moments there are a lot of things I don't understand. Enemies there and then gone. A lot of stuff involving "why didn't they do it" scenarios on either the human or alien side. Plot vagueness might be a good way to call them without giving anything away.

The overall picture is recommendable to any Sci-Fi fan. It feels like they crammed a lot into it and don't always succeed with it. As has been said, the ending is kind of a drag, but it's alright. If I were to chose between this and Transformers, Yamato would make the race due to better story development, more interesting characters and a higher entertainment factor. I guess the Japanese acting is a bit stiff at times, but there is this sense of serenity about it, which makes it yet believable and enjoyable to the end.